Image Cropping has become a fundamental problem that has gained utmost importance in the modern era of online retailing. Generally, online retailers have a large number of images which require manual cropping in order to comply with guidelines comprised of certain standards, as well as the needs of particular retailers. For images containing human subjects, the guidelines can include a variety of different positions and angles at which a set of images is to be cropped. The guidelines can be affected by balancing such considerations as consistency, creativity, and cost-effectiveness. For example, image cropping guidelines may require images containing human subjects to be cropped exactly beneath the subject's nose to decrease the cost associated with paying models for publishing their face shots, or right beneath the knees to accentuate the positioning of the product being showcased.
Currently, online retailers specify certain image cropping rules to define how images showcasing their products are to be cropped. For images containing human subjects, such cropping rules may include, e.g., a prefixed aspect ratio, the position of a model, and/or the location of the cropped image borders relative to keys points on a human subject's body. However, the current methods require human experts to manually apply these rules to individual images. This process can hence be extremely time consuming and costly. It also can lead to errors in consistency of the cropping; affecting the quality of the cropped images.